WASHINGTON (AP) -- Authorities arrested a second man in connection with the twin terrorist attacks as the Bush administration said Sunday it will ask Congress for enhanced wiretap authority and other powers aimed at stopping terrorism.
Stressing the need for swift action, Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller were talking to congressional leaders by phone and in person at FBI headquarters.
"We need ... to elevate the penalties for those who would harbor or assist terrorists to at least the same level as the penalties for those who would harbor, assist those who have been involved in espionage," Ashcroft said in a televised address from Camp David, Md. People who harbor terrorists now face five-year prison terms.
People linked to terrorism may be present in the United States and quick congressional action is needed because of the potential threats, said Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker.
Law enforcement officials issued a warrant and took a man into custody in New York as a possible material witness, the Justice Department said, following the arrest of a man at Kennedy airport who had a fake pilot's license. The first man also was picked up as a material witness.
Citing federal grand jury secrecy rules, the department refused to provide details. Law enforcement officials are using a grand jury impaneled in the Southern District of New York for the work on the arrest warrants.
Separately, a man detained at Toronto's Pearson International Airport after the attacks was handed over to the FBI at the U.S. border.
The unidentified man, held by Immigration Canada officials since Tuesday, chose to be transferred to the United States and the FBI took him into custody, said Greg Peters, spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. An RCMP officer said Friday the man was being investigated for a possible connection to the attacks.
Another 25 people are still being detained for possible immigration violations, including some who are cooperating, law enforcement officials say.
Ashcroft said he hopes Congress will expand the reach of wiretaps and take other steps immediately to assist the investigation.
"We need to upgrade" U.S. law because federal law enforcement agencies have better tools against organized crime and illegal gambling "than we do against terrorists," Ashcroft said.
Currently, suspicion of terrorism is not a valid legal reason to get a wiretap.
Ashcroft was talking about steps that would be wider-ranging than the Senate's passage last week of a measure enabling wiretaps on computers and phones of people suspected in hijacking, bombing or other terrorist acts.
Wiretap authorization should be focused on the person rather than the phone he uses because with the advent of "disposable telephones ... it simply doesn't make sense to have the surveillance authority associated with the hardware," the attorney general said.
The legislation will go Capitol Hill this week, said Tucker.
The Justice Department also said that the cockpit voice recorder from the jetliner that struck the Pentagon was "unusable" because it had been damaged.
